Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (“OFDM”) is widely used and is useful where communication channels exhibit severe multi-path interference. OFDM divides a signal waveform into orthogonal signals (“subcarriers”) sending multiple symbols in parallel. When these subcarriers are distributed among multiple subscriber stations or users, the system may be referred to as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (“OFDMA”) system. In order to promote industry standardization, communication protocols may include Medium Access Control (“MAC”) and Physical Layer (“PHY”) specifications for OFDM communication system components. Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (“IEEE”) wireless local area network (“WLAN”) specification (e.g., IEEE 802.11a/g/n or “Wi-Fi”), wireless metropolitan area network (“WirelessMAN”) specification (e.g., IEEE 802.16 or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (“WiMax”)), and associated mobile specification (e.g., mobile WiMax or IEEE 802.16e), among other examples of OFDM/OFDMA hardware specifications, are promoted for compliance. Though these examples of wireless specifications are used, it should be appreciated that other wireless communication specifications may be used.
Signal computation requirements of an OFDM communication system, such as arithmetic calculations in particular, may be very demanding. By way of example, these arithmetic calculations may be in the billions operations per second, which may be beyond the capacity of conventional Digital Signal Processors. Additionally, circuitry to support billions of operations per second for OFDM communication conventionally is costly.